Watch NASA arrive at the asteroid for a possible collision course with the Earth

After joyful triumph and terror InSight unloading on Mars last week, you may think NASA has taken a break.

But no – exists many space outdoors and someone must do more history is exploring.

As landing InSight, NASA will provide a live stream of its first asteroid demonstration mission to return to 10,1955 Benna because it is 2018 and we all need to see NASA scientists swap a joyous handshake at the site of a successful mission.

The beginnings of NASA, Spectral Interpretation, Source Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) meet with Benn at exactly half an hour. EST, Dec. 3, and NASA suggests that it should get directly to its live web site. If you prefer social media to your place of viewing, Facebook also has you covered as well as YouTube.

The OSIRIS-REx settlement journey began in September 2016, and three years later it is finally close enough to the designation of space rock. The spacecraft is equipped with five instruments and will observe the asteroid about a year before selecting a sample loading location. OSIRIS-REx does not touch the asteroid like Japanese Hayabusa 2 was held last year, instead of having a leaf blower on the surface to get dust particles into the robotic arm of the craft. Gnarly.

December 3 OSIRIS-REx begins to work around the asteroid, crossing its north pole, the south pole and the equator, just 4.3 miles away. This allows the spaceship to find out how much weight it is, how fast it rotates and creates an asteroid model.

The $ 800 million mission will not be completed until 2023, when OSIRIS-REx returns to Earth with Benn's dust on board. By taking a layer of Benna's rocky skin, astronomers can find out how life began on Earth, the types of compounds present in Benno, and the creation of our own solar system.

There is also the fact that Bennu has a (very small) chance of colliding with the Earth sometime after 2175 – so it would be nice to prepare for this, thank you.

If OSIRIS-REx meets its goals, it will be the cause of another huge live stream celebration, but at this point we could have retinal implants that allow us to in NASA in augmented reality so we can digitally handshake with our favorite astronomers as if we were really there.

Go well, space robot.

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